Non-consensual, penile penetration of a woman — whether it be anal or vaginal — constitutes rape, the Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday. However, it refused to find that non-consensual anal penetration of a man is rape, holding that this is the function of the legislators and not the court.
The Constitutional Court has reserved judgement in Cosatu’s application for leave to appeal a finding that Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) decisions be subject to appeal and not just to review. The finding was made by the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2006 when it overturned a CCMA decision that Rustenburg Platinum Mines reinstate a security guard.
Bedfordview residents east of Johannesburg were still without electricity by 6pm on Wednesday, the Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality said. ”It’s still not on,” said spokesperson Zweli Dlamini. Eskom spokesperson Fani Zulu could not be reached for comment. The company has repeatedly had to push back its self-imposed deadline for resolving the problem.
The middle-aged British man and wife hurt in a fall from an elephant in Hartbeespoort on Thursday have been transferred to the Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg. The incident took place while they were getting on to an African elephant after an awareness programme in which they had touched and fed the animals.
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/ 8 December 2006
The bail application of Kebble murder accused Glenn Agliotti was postponed until Wednesday in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday. Scorpions prosecutor Gerrie Nel said that ”due to unforeseen circumstances” the state would not be able to proceed with the bail hearing on Friday.
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/ 6 December 2006
Scorpions advocate Portia Refiloe Kgantsi is to go to trial in the Johannesburg High Court on April 16 on 12 counts including fraud, corruption and extortion. She was served with the indictment against her in the Randburg Regional Court on Wednesday.
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/ 4 December 2006
Two former South African Defence Force soldiers were arrested for protesting in full military uniform outside the Lenz Military Base near Lenasia on Monday. Another five protesters — some also in camouflage uniform — are thought to have also been arrested when they went on to the base to speak to the commanding officer.
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/ 14 October 2006
The time has come for the Congress of South African Trade Unions to play a much more active role in the fight against crime, its general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Friday. ”The nature of the capitalist society… [is that] it breeds corruption, criminality, and immorality,” he told a Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) conference in Johannesburg.
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/ 12 October 2006
The government could not give in to pressure from ”shrill, shriek and opportunistic” voices claiming the people’s cause had been betrayed, former minister of justice Penuell Maduna said in Johannesburg on Thursday. ”It has not been betrayed,” he told the business community at the launch of a new fund-raising system run under the auspices of The Giving Organisation.
President Thabo Mbeki has accused South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande of ”extraordinary arrogance”, it emerged on Sunday. It was this which had led him to ”openly despise” the African National Congress, Mbeki noted in his political overview to the ANC’s National Executive Committee meeting held over the weekend.